CONIFER, Colo. — It sounds like something straight out of a Hollywood movie.
A federal indictment alleges a Conifer woman stole thousands of dollars worth of artifacts belonging to the British scientist and mathematician Alan Turing.
Court documents say she hid medals, notes and pictures in her home for more than 30 years before federal officers conducted a search warrant and recovered the artifacts in 2018.
An international search for Alan Turing’s missing artifacts led police to Conifer and the home of Julia Turing.
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More than 250 items belonging to super-Brit Alan Turing, including his OBE medal, that went missing decades ago were found hidden behind a bathroom wall in America, according to new court documents.
The items, which include photos of the revered mathematician and school reports from his teenage years, vanished 36 years ago from the Sherborne boarding school he attended in Dorset, UK. Turing’s mother had, a few years prior, donated the belongings to the school. Turing died in 1954 from cyanide poisoning although suicide is strongly suspected.
The woman accused of the theft, Julia Mathison Turing, visited the school in 1984, and when left unattended, it is claimed, stole the items, leaving a note that read: “Please forgive me for taking these materials into my possession. They will be well taken care of while under the care of my hands and shall one day all be returned to this spot.
In 2018, she approached the University of Colorado, claiming to be Turing’s daughter, and offered the possessions for display, alongside artwork she made based on the documents, it is alleged. But investigations by the university quickly revealed Turing had no daughter – he was gay and persecuted as such in the UK – and raised the alarm.
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